Cultivation Struggles of a Lowly Fox

Aiko woke up and was met with a disapproving look from Grandpa Lin, but she didn't care. It was too demoralizing when someone was able to do something the first time, yet she would have to work so hard to do the same.

Aiko stood up and practised the Qi barrier for a week straight with the blood fox. Well, the Blood Fox just kept staring at her while she had to work her ass off.

She did somewhat succeed with only 1 Beast Core Energy consumption per second, instead of the previous hundreds per second.

Grandpa Li didn't praise her and immediately moved back to the training.

"Now that you know Qi coating, we can advance to swimming." Grandpa Lin pointed at the lake where she previously swam.

Aiko nodded, but she kept in mind that he didn't praise her, for later.

"Now we teach two styles of swimming, but only one is completely silent." Grandpa Lin undressed the ornaments on his body but still kept his black suit which covered his whole body.

"Let me show you." He jumped into the water without making any ripples and kept himself submerged until he reached the other side.

"Whoa." Even Aiko's sensitive ears didn't pick any kind of sound other than the first barely audible splash.

Grandpa Lin submerged himself again and swam back to the starting shore.

"This is the first technique, it's completely silent, but you have to keep the Qi coating going and hold your breath. At higher Cultivation stages it's not that hard, but it is also more difficult to suppress your Energy." Grandpa Lin explained.

"Now for the second one."

Grandpa Lin swam forward, but it was a strange sight. His head didn't bob up and down, but stayed even and the ripples he created vanished less than a hands length from his body. It kind of felt like the surrounding water was heavier than further away from him.

'I can still hear the water ripples.' Aiko narrowed her eyes.

Grandpa Lin returned. "As you can see it's much easier like this, but it is not completely silent unlike the previous one, so you have to be careful about being heard."

Grandpa Lin commanded Aiko to show him the Qi coating again and then made her swim with the second technique.

"You are still too slow, but you are improving." Grandpa Lin wasn't one to praise, but when he did, it was worthy of such praise.

'Obviously.' Aiko scoffed at him in her mind as she watched the ridiculous growth of her Skill.

[Swimming: Lv.2->3]
[Swimming: Lv.3->4]
[Swimming: Lv.4->5]
[Swimming: Lv.5->6]
[Swimming: Lv.6->7]
...
[Swimming: Lv.9->Mastered]

[Swimming: Mastered]
v
[Improved Swimming] for 10 Skill Points
or
[Silent Swimming] for 5 Skill Points
or
[Speed Swimming] for 5 Skill Points

Aiko chose the [Silent Swimming] Skill since she didn't want to deal with the kind of training where she has to swim in cold water, while still managing her Qi coating. She truly didn't like this... wet feeling.

[Silent Swimming: Lv.1->2]
[Silent Swimming: Lv.2->3]
[Silent Swimming: Lv.3->4]

'This is just crazy...' She didn't like how she was trained, but the system would beg to differ, since the amount of experience she gained was just not comparable to when she was climbing or training other things.

[Silent Swimming: Mastered]
v
[Shadow Swimming] for 200

'Oh?' Aiko was surprised as you would get at least 2 options, one was just an improved version while another was a radical change, but this time she didn't get that?

'Is it something to do with restrictions like the [Lacerate]?' Aiko thought, but she still purchased the [Shadow Swimming].

'Oh! It's a Passive Ability, nice! Improvements~!' Aiko hummed happily as her presence thinned. Previously she would make unconscious splashes, but those were now suppressed by her new Passive Ability, making Aiko barely audible.

'Ho.' Grandpa Lin was surprised, since this kind of mastery was good enough to reach the real Assassination Training. And it took her only a month!

"Come back." Grandpa Lin told her and Aiko swam back.

...

"Next up is the boulder jumping stage." He pointed at the boulders in their muddy field, which Aiko remembered as being easy.

"You were too slow, so I will teach you." Grandpa Lin glanced at Aiko.

Aiko didn't say a thing, if she could speed up her jumps, her double jumps would become even faster, which was definitely a good thing.

"Let's see..." Grandpa Lin narrowed his eyes and jumped on the first boulder, but before he completely landed, his body already moved onto the second boulder and then the third, passing the course in the blink of an eye.

Aiko felt that there was something familiar about the way he moved, but she just couldn't pinpoint what that was.

Grandpa Lin returned seeing the frowning Aiko and smiled. "This is called [Lightness Technique]."

"Of course! That's what that was!" Aiko immediately turned her head at him.

Grandpa Lin was taken aback. "You know what that was?"

"Yes!" Aiko smiled happily.

"Then why didn't you use it!" Grandpa Lin sternly reprimanded Aiko.

Aiko sniffed. "I never used it in Human form!" She defended herself.

Grandpa Lin rolled his eyes but didn't say anything about it as it would be easier to teach her if she already knew this technique.

"Okay." He nodded. "I will demonstrate this again, but a bit slower so that you can see how the energy moves inside my body." Grandpa Lin said and once again let out his Qi.

The space was slightly distorted from the constant movement of his internal Qi, but Aiko could clearly see how it moved, and thus it was easy to recreate.

Aiko tried to follow Grandpa Lin with her own [Lightness Technique], but she was too slow compared to him.

'She didn't lie when she said she knew it, but she is quite awkward, limiting the speed of the Technique.' He narrowed his eyes.

"Do the boulders again." Grandpa Lin told her as he shot forward, clearing the boulder obstacle within a single breath.

Aiko was shocked by the speed, but still tried to follow him.

She jumped on the first boulder, everything was fine, so she continued...

*Slip*
*Splash*

Aiko slipped and landed in the mud. She had an unsightly expression as the mud was not as nice as it was in the Pillars training ground.

She moved out of the mud, but most of her body was covered by it.

Grandpa Lin swiped his hand, removing the mud from the Vicious Cub.

"The reason why you slipped is that you made yourself too light." Grandpa Lin explained.

"While normally this is not an issue since you would be able to reach higher speeds, that is not the case for slippery obstacles like these smooth stones, if you don't have proper weight behind your steps it is incredibly easy to slip." Grandpa Lin gestured.

"Now do it again, but don't activate the [Lightness Technique] too much so you can keep your grip." Grandpa Lin pushed Aiko back to the starting line.

A week later, Aiko was able to clear the obstacle without much issue.

"Good, good. You managed to clear it in 20 breaths, which is passable." Grandpa Lin moved to another obstacle.

Aiko noted once again that he didn't properly praise her and walked behind him.

'Nicely shaped rear... I can stuff at least 3 flags in there.' Aiko nodded to herself and a chill went down Grandpa Lin's spine.

He turned around to see who caused it, but could only see a silly Fox staring at him. He felt unwell.

'Is someone targeting me from afar?' He was a bit afraid that someone powerful sneaked inside this Fox Village.

"Next up is the climbing." Grandpa Lin gestured. "You were able to clear the rope once quite nicely, so let's skip that one and move to the artificial mountain."

Aiko stopped in front of the artificial mountain, looking at the peak. It was as intimidating as she remembered.

"Now, climbing is all about positioning your body close to the mountain and looking for firm footholds so you could do this." Grandpa Lin demonstrated his insane...

IS THAT EVEN CONSIDERED CLIMBING?! HE IS JUST JUMPING AROUND!

Aiko was upset, seeing Grandpa Lin fooling around like that.

He jumped back down next to Aiko, landing silently.

"Now it's your turn." Grandpa Lin smiled gently.

"I beg your fucking pardon?! How am I supposed to fucking do that!?" Aiko felt wronged on so many levels. This was pretty much a 90° angle! How was she supposed to do that?!

Aiko stared at Grandpa Lin speechlessly, judging him with her sight.

Grandpa Lin coughed awkwardly. "Start climbing."

Aiko rolled her eyes but listened. She slowly climbed up.

"Keep your body close to the mountain!"
"Stop flapping your arms!"
"You are supposed to jump that one!"

Aiko felt annoyed listening to him, but she still climbed again and again. Unbeknown to her, a quarter of a year passed before she barely passed this stage.

Aiko huffed annoyed, even more so since for some fucking reason she was not able to upgrade her [Enhanced Climbing] so she got stuck on this stage for god knows how long!

"Next up is the tree branch jumping obstacle." Grandpa Lin walked forward and Aiko followed behind him.

'Who said anything about 3 Flags, even 5 wouldn't be enough!' Aiko's burning gaze locked on his cheeks and Grandpa Lin shivered again.

He turned around again, but he could only see the Vicious Cub staring at his-

"Bad! Don't even think about that!" Grandpa Lin immediately scolded her. He wouldn't lose his anal virginity taken by one of the Vicious Cubs infamous flag rampages!

Aiko snorted, looking away, but the moment he walked forward she would stare again.

They finally arrived at the tree jumping obstacle, but Aiko didn't need to be taught on this one as she already knew the [Lightness Technique] and with her [Moon's Eyes]... She was easily able to clear this thing, even when she had to take a slight detour.

"You have improved!" Grandpa Lin praised and moved towards another obstacle.

'Poor praise, another flag noted.' Aiko silently noted in her mind and followed Grandpa Lin...

"This is the tightrope walking obstacle." Grandpa Lin pointed at that thin wire. "You already learned Qi coating, so this should also be easy for you."

Aiko slowly nodded. She was proficient in Qi barriers now, so she was able to quickly gather that energy in her soles, but she didn't stop there. She also used her [Lightness Technique], which allowed her to pass this much quicker as she was much lighter, so the balancing act didn't matter to her.

Grandpa Lin narrowed his eyes but didn't say anything, the real deal was much longer and couldn't be bypassed like this, but strictly speaking she was able to pass this obstacle without issue.

"The last one is the mud crawling, but..." Grandpa Lin narrowed his eyes. "You already cleared that one, so just crawl a few times to get familiar again and you will be able to take your first few solo missions before being taught by your seniors." Grandpa Lin commented.

Aiko didn't really want to crawl under there again, but she also didn't want to stay there any longer, lest he comes up with something crazy again, so she obediently crawled a few times.